


The Scaver And The Lady

by deichqueen



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, a bit of killing and blood, and seriously: i have no idea where this will end, but it kind of is, just the start of something bigger, no sole survivor story, not in this one though, there will be more and there will be romance, you know the deal in the commonwealth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-10-27 11:28:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10808145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deichqueen/pseuds/deichqueen
Summary: Nora survived the total atomic annihilation.Dodge was born into all this.And against all odds,or because of some wrong turn the scavenger took,they meet at just the right time."Commonwealth love storiescan start with a gunpointed at your head afteryou saved someone’s life."





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I think it might be too early to put a thank you note on this one, but I already wrote it, so you have to read it now - or scroll past it if you're that heartless...
> 
> I want to dedicate this to all the amazing people I met in the Fallout 4 Fandom on tumblr.  
> And a big thanks for the inspiration for this goes to some awesome fanfic writers who are among them. I really love the way you put your words together and make people feel every emotion possible, there has never been a book that touched me like some of your works did.  
> For all that it’s good for I hope I can do you some justice with this piece - and if you actually get to read this:  
> Thank you for being you. Thank you for being my friends. 
> 
> Thank. You.
> 
> ~ DQ ~

# Prologue

Oktober 23rd 2077.

Nate and Nora are running along the narrow path that leads up to the Vault they signed up just minutes ago. They’re holding hands and drag each other forward through the crowd that’s waiting in front of a gate.

“Let us through!” Nate pushes other people aside and Nora blindly follows him.

At the gate a soldier is waiting with a list. “Name please?”

“Nate and Nora Rogers. We’re on the list!” Nate says in a serious tone.

“Male and female? Alright, you can pass. Follow the instructions of our personnel please.” The soldier replies and steps aside for them to pass through the gate.

The sirens that are hearable from Boston distract Nora, and she isn’t focussing on her nearby surrounding. Her husband still holds her hand and drags her further up the hill.

“Southeast probably…” she mumbles when she’s trying to figure out which direction the wind has to come from that the sirens are so clear to hear for them up here in Sanctuary Hills.

“Honey?” Nate says without getting her attention. “Hey, honey…” He squeezes her hand and pulls her out of her thoughts. She looks at him with tears in her eyes. “I love you.” He says with a bright smile.

Nora tries to match his smile, but it isn’t as bright as his. It’s a worried smile full of fear this might be the end. She finally realises that they already reached the top of the small hill and are now standing on a metal platform.  
Nora looks up to Nate and whispers: “I love you too baby.”

Then they hear an earthshaking sound followed by the screams of her neighbors and some strangers that made it to the Vault too. _Oh my God, look!_ someone yelled over the whining of a woman. The mushroom cloud in the south was growing quick as the elevator started moving. Just seconds before the deadly rush of radiation and heat reached the hill the heavy hatchet above them closed with a metallic sound.

Nora wakes up every time when she has this dream. A whim of burned wood and something she doesn’t want to think about what it might be is always left inside her nose for a while. She sits up in her bed, sick to her stomach when she thinks about how Vault Tec tricked her and her husband to sign up for the Vault. Then again, she was still alive after all, but at what cost? So many people lost their lives down in that Vault. A trap that caused the death of her husband too. Sometimes she couldn’t believe it that they’ve been frozen for over 200 years.

Thanks to the cold breeze of wind that blew through the holes in the walls of her ruined house she was pulled back into the present. Here. Now. It was a cold and grey morning in the January of 2287 and she heard Codsworth humming and whistling to the tunes of the radio. Nora got up, there was no need to get dressed when you have to sleep in your clothes. In her case a warm winter jacket and some pants she found in one of the other houses. Leaving her bedroom and entering the kitchen to join her Mr. Handy robot that somehow survived the bombs.

“Good morning Codsworth, no newspaper today?” she asked with a tired smile and sat down at the table.

“Sorry Miss. Delivery is almost 210 years late.” the robot chuckled and served her some purified water, mutfruit and some sugar bombs in a cracked bowl.

“Thank you Cods… you’re the best robot I got.” Nora picked some of the sugar bombs and leaned back on her chair and her thoughts started wandering off again.

Not even a year ago a malfunction in the computer system caused seven of the fourteen cryo pods to open. Seven of fourteen people made it out, the other seven died inside their cold coffins. They all looked like they were sleeping in peace, they didn’t die in pain or suffered before they passed away. And that was the only thing Nora could tell herself to get over the death of her loving husband.

Their group managed to settle in, back into their old homes in Sanctuary Hills. They soon found themselves threatened by the dangers of this new world they were thrown into. Together they scouted out the close surroundings and found allies among the people at the farm near their settlement. The Abernathy’s helped them survive the first few month, until they were able to grow food on their own. It was all fine until their “luck” seemed to run out. In the span of just two weeks they lost three people to a disease Nora couldn’t cure. She has been a nurse before the great war, how the people of the “Commonwealth” called it, but with the constant lack of medical supplies she wasn’t much of a help to the group.

They buried their friends and carried on living. Somehow the survivors silently agreed not to mourn for too long, since they knew that every day could be their last.

 

* * *

 

It’s early afternoon when Dodge comes across an abandoned Red Rocket Station. These old gas stations usually have salvage that’s good to sell to traders, mechanical parts and stuff still bring good caps. The area seems deserted and safe enough to take a closer look inside. Dodge finds some interesting parts, but nothing special so far. A few cartons with cigarettes and a ton of garbage even he wouldn’t take with him.

In the small office he finds some jet and buffout. “Well, hello there beautiful…” he said to himself and drops the buffout into his ‘good to sell’ back, but the jet goes into the pocket of his weathered jacket for his personal use.

On his way back out he can hear people talking - Raiders… Worse than scavengers, since they kill for mere fun. He ducks behind an old barrel that’s standing near the doorway. They pass the Red Rocket without a single look and Dodge can breath easy again. After he got out of cover he keeps looking around behind the station but doesn’t find anything of interest. Since the Raiders went north he’s about to head back towards Concord when he hears gunshots and screams. His first instinct is to ignore it, but against his own gut he turns around and heads into the direction the raiders went.

To his right he passed a statue of a man holding a musket. Seeing this statue he suddenly knows where he is: Sanctuary Hills. Dodge didn’t even know that this was a populated settlement at all. He crouched down and sticked to the first ruined building, one dead raider and one dead settler he already passed right after he crossed the bridge. He saw another one of this low-lifes killing a man. A second Raider is standing next to them laughing at the display. Dodge loads his hunting rifle, takes aim and shoots them both in the span of a few seconds.

He sneaks around the next house that’s completely ruined and sees how the two remained Raiders corner two women. A few feet further there’s a Mr. Handy robot shot to pieces, or at least shot out of function. With his loaded gun already aimed at one of the Raiders heads he comes closer. Dodge was very close when he blows the head off the Raider’s neck that’s been standing a bit aside. The other Raider shoots one of the women before he turns around real quick to jump at Dodge with a bladed tire iron. The man slams his weapon into Dodge’s left shoulder what causes the scavenger to lose his weapon and balance.

Within a split second the woman who survived jumps at the Raiders back and bites his wrist to make him drop his weapon. With a stinging pain in his arm Dodge gathers all his energy left to get up, grab the bladed weapon and slash the Raiders throat with it. Both men drop down to the ground. One dead, the other one wounded and exhausted.

Kneeling on the dirty and blood covered ground the tall man with his broad shoulders is panting and trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder and the burning in his lungs. Dodge is looking down and sees a growing pool of blood on the ground when he feels the barrel of a gun pointed at the back of his head.

He stops breathing for a moment until he hears the woman behind him whimper and ask, “Make one move and I’ll end you, scaver….” Her voice is shaking and so is her hand that’s holding the gun. “Were you with them? Tell me!”

Dodge takes a deep breath and inhales a bit too sharp before he answers: “No. I am not.” He’s putting weight to every single word he says. “I was at the gas station across the bridge when I heard gunshots and screams. I just thought someone could use help.” The woman takes a step back and the gun is released from his skull, Dodge gets up with his hands in the air, a precaution he sometimes makes without overthinking it. “I’m sorry your friends are dead… I tried to help...” he finally says and turns around to the woman, hands still up in the air.

The scavenger looks down on a small woman, with tanned skin, light brown, messy hair and bright blue eyes. Even though her eyes looked tired and her face was covered with dirt and some drops of blood, that didn’t seem to be her own, Dodge could see that she is pretty.

He was probably staring a bit too long into her blue eyes because she raised her gun once more to ask, “Tell me who you are and what you’re up to...”

Dodge couldn’t hide a smirk at her firm tone, a tough woman she was, that was for sure. “My name’s Dodge and you weren’t wrong with the scaver.” he answered.

The sole woman lowers her gun and squints at him, probably in return of the smirk he gave her: “I’m Nora. And now….” she makes a short pause and looks around at the bodies. “...now I’m the only one left here. Everyone I’ve ever known is gone.”


	2. The spark that lit the flame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Days like these lead to nights like this, lead to love like ours  
> You light the spark in my bonfire heart  
> People like us we don’t need that much  
> Just someone that starts the spark in our bonfire hearts
> 
> This world is getting colder, strangers passing by  
> No one offers you a shoulder, no one looks you in the eye  
> But I’ve been looking at you for a long, long time  
> Just trying to break through, trying to make you mine  
> Everybody wants a flame, they don’t want to get burnt  
> Well today is our turn
> 
> ~ James Blunt "Bonfire hearts"

# The spark that lit the flame

It has been a long day of work on their settlement, they had to fix a lot of things, the water purifier was broken, crops and some fruits had to be planted since it was the time of the year, the walls and roofs needed an overhaul. Nora and Dodge were exhausted, the only one buzzing around Sanctuary was Codsworth, who floated along the fences they sat up a few weeks ago.

Dodge had been hunting before dawn and now a nice piece of Radstag was cooking on the stove the Scavenger build new from scratch. Nora was happy that he decided to stay after he helped her with the Raiders. That was almost two months ago. She expected him to leave as soon as his shoulder was healed again, but he stayed, much to her surprise, but he had came in handy a few times already. He knew how to build stuff and he knew a lot about farming and making medical supplies from plants she found in the wasteland. Together they’ve been to Diamond City a few times, for trading and restocking on supplies they wouldn’t get otherwise.

The man who didn’t really talk much was lounging at the couch with a bottle of beer. He kicked off his boots and threw his legs over the armrest.

“God, what a day.” He groaned and stretched his arms and back before he chucked down half of his beer at once. “Thanks for having me Nora… To be honest, I thought you would kick me out as soon as I was well again.” He said looking over his shoulder, eyeing Nora who was humming while she prepared the Radstag for dinner.

“Don’t mention it, you’ve been a big help so far. You are pretty handy.” The woman was looking over her shoulder too, and when their eyes met she blushed and looked away again.

“Well, I learned a bit… You don’t survive long enough when you’re dumb as brahmin shit.” Dodge laughed and emptied his bottle just to open another one. “Can I help you with anything?”

Nora turned around again, her blush a bit less dark: “If you want to help you can get the table ready. I’m almost done here…” She added some herbs to the meal and put on her oven mitts to get the hot pot over to the table. Dodge just placed the last plate on it. He sat down and waited for Nora to sit down too.

“That smells really good. I thought you didn’t make this before?” He asked with a slightly surprised look on his face.

“I didn’t. But I think it’s not much different to other meat, huh? We’ll have to wait if it is good or not.” She chuckled and blushed again over his pre-meal-compliment.

They almost ate in silence, just Dodge seemed to enjoy his meal since he kept verbalising how awesome Nora’s cooking was. And he moaned. And it drove Nora crazy in more than one way. On one hand she found it very annoying, but on the other hand his deep moan turned her on somehow. He was a scavenger after all, she wanted to keep her thoughts off him as much as possible, but failed miserably. Nora’s strange behavior didn’t pass Dodge unnoticed. She had his attention since the fatal day and way they met for the first time and now, two month after they had buried Nora’s friends in the cold ground up on the hill behind Sanctuary, his interest in her was flickering up again. He leaned back and the muscles under his shirt were very visible as he rolled his shoulders and stretched out to grab his bottle of beer from the counter behind him. Dodge grinned as Nora looked away really quick and turned back to her plate.

“Do you want some too? We have two whole crates standing outside, we could relax a bit tonight and have a couple of beers, huh? What do you think… Nora?” The way he said her name sent a shiver down her spine. She hasn’t been drinking since a while, but he was right - they had been working for a long time, not just today but over the last month.

Finally she nodded and answered: “Yes, that’s a good idea. We earned it I suppose.”

The two finished their meal with only a bit of smalltalk, about how the day went and what had to be done next which was a lot actually, but they had time after all. The defences of Sanctuary were better now than they had been two months ago, a lot of it was only possible because Dodge knew some tricks Nora didn’t even think about. Perks of being a wastelander, he called it once. The woman from the past was impressed by the scavenger that seemed to be smarter than the average Commonwealth citizen. He knew a bit about history and literature, and it was nice to talk about these things for a change.

Now they were sitting in Sanctuary Hills, in a mostly ruined house on old furniture. Nora on the couch, her knees pulled up and her chin resting on them. Dodge in the old armchair by the window.

“I was wondering where you learned all of this, where did you grow up? If that's not  a too personal question.” Nora asked after a while of comfortable silence.

Dodge looked up and then out the window, replying: “Do you really want to know? It’s kind of a boring story…” He smiled slightly as he looked back at her and met her gaze.

Nora didn't look away this time, like she normally did when he looked into her eyes. For the first time since she met him if felt like she saw him, really saw *him*, the man who's name was Dodge. Not the scavenger, not the hero that saved her life. Just him.

“Yes, tell me about yourself, please.” She said coming back to her senses.

“Alright, if you insist. But don't complain afterwards if you got bored.” He said and got up from his seat and dropped down on the couch next to Nora.

 

* * *

 

Looking out the window most of the time, as if he would find words in the distance, he started talking about his childhood and youth. He grew up as a son of traders near Quincy, where his parents managed to live a decent life on a small farm. They grew and sold their own fruits and his father was away to Diamond City and Goodneighbor for trading. Dodge looked at Nora and put down his beer to shift on the couch, now facing the woman, who was listening to him with a soft smile on her face. He smiled back as he continues to tell how he survived so far. One day his father didn’t come back from Diamond City. Weeks later another trader came to them and told Dodge and his mother that they found his father's body in the Boston Commons. His mother stopped caring for herself since then, she stopped eating first and started drinking too much, until her conditions got so bad that she passed away a few month after they got the news about this dad.

The scavenger had to stop for a moment, as the memory of her death visibly shook him up. He took a big sip from his beer and started scratching on the label as if was nervous to go on.

“I’m sorry about your parents, Dodge.” Nora said and placed her hand on his knee. “Listen if you don’t want to ---”

“No. Thank you Nora, I appreciate it. I just don’t talk much… at all and certainly not about myself.” the man replied and looked into her light blue eyes.

Next he tried to hold the farm, but soon raiders came and took everything that wasn’t nailed to the ground. Dodge was able to get away with his life, even though it was a close call when a bullet hit his shoulder as he was running from the threat. When he reached Goodneighbor he was barely alive and passed out as soon as the gates closed behind him.

“Daisy patched me up.” he said. “She was the one who found me and I stayed at her place for almost 2 years after I recovered. I helped in her shop, gathered supplies for her… Hancock wanted me to join his neighborhood watch, but I said I needed to move on.” Another sip from his bottle and he had to get up and grab a new one.

“How old were you when you left?” Nora asked. “Were you never scared all on your own?”

Dodge breathed a laugh: “I was never alone, when you’re on the road you meet people, you know? You join caravans, sometimes you meet random other wanderers…. It’s busy in the Commonwealth. I left Goodneighbor when I was 19, I wanted to find out what happened to my father and went to Diamond City and Bunker Hill, but nobody could help me… or they didn’t want to. My dad was - difficult at best. And an asshole at worst…”

His journey took him across the whole Commonwealth, from his home in the south, to the inner city of Boston, up north and down the coast again. But he always came back to Goodneighbor, made friends with Daisy, Kent and some of the watchmen. Hancock never gave up to talking him into his guards, trying to lure him with drugs, caps and women.

“I like Hancock, he’s a good man. But I don’t think I’m built to stay in one place for long…” Dodge regretted what he said immediately because he saw a twitch taking Nora's smile away.

“Hm, it must be strange for you being here now... “ she said with a sad tone to her voice, but her smile was back the next moment. “What else can you tell me?”

While Dodge told her about the places he has been Nora moved closer to him and suddenly shivered as her arm touched his. She stared for a moment at their skin, hers pale and rosy and his weathered and dark like rosewood. Even if she hadn’t known it already, she could see that he’s been through much.

Dodge noticed her absence and asked: “Are you alright Vaultie?” The deep warm tone in his voice brought her back to reality. “I’ll get you a blanket.”

“A blanket?” Nora wasn’t cold, but he must have noticed her shiver before. “No, Dodge. I’m fine… really.”

“Hmmm…” He grinned, as if he didn’t believe her. Then he reached behind him and grabbed a blanket from the nearby armchair. “There you go. I don’t want you to freeze.”  The scavenger joked, as he wrapped the blanket around the small woman.

“Sorry Dodge, I think I’m just tired. It’s been a long day…” Nora replied, almost sad about the loss of skin contact. Now there was an itching blanket between them and he was looking at her. The former vault dweller looked up and saw how the light green eyes of the man who saved her life lingered on her lips. As Dodge finally met her gaze he was smiling.

“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met…” Dodge slurred tired, or slightly drunk, Nora couldn’t tell. “I mean it. Your face, your eyes… everything is stunningly beautiful.”

He saw how her cheeks went from their usual pale color to a sweet red blush and he couldn’t help himself and leaned forward, not sure what he would do when his lips finally reached hers.

But he didn’t get that far - a sting followed the smack she landed in his face. That woman had some serious strength and Dodge reached for his cheek that was getting hot in seconds.

Nora clutched her hands over her mouth and muffled a squeak while she backed away from him on the couch: “Oh my God! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ---”

But he cut her off, by holding up one hand, while rubbing his cheek with the other: “No, no… I am sorry. You just… I don’t know what I was thinking. I’m sorry.” He got up and looked down at her. “Maybe it’s time to go… I see you in the morning. Goodnight Nora.”

She hadn’t even got the chance to say goodbye, because he was gone so fast. Nora got up herself and saw how he vanished into the house on the other side of the street. The light in the bedroom was lit and she could see his silhouette behind the makeshift curtains. For a brief moment she was about to follow him, but what then? She was more than confused about her feelings for him, did she have feelings for him and why did he just kiss her? Nora placed her hands on the curtains of her living room and pulled them close with a sigh.

“Well, Nora… maybe you need to talk to him tomorrow…” she whispered to herself and went to bed with all sorts of thoughts on her mind.


End file.
